How to keep a voice line with Fibre service

[#1]

I'm actually posting on behalf of my 86 year old mother who currently pays for a BT phone line and has a 3Mb Plusnet broadband. 

Last week we ordered an upgrade to a faster Fibre service and were assured (by Plusnet sales) that the BT contract would not be affected. One day later, BT received a cease order which they shared with my mother. She's since contacted Plusnet to cancel the upgrade to Fibre but the sales rep also insists she now has to commit to an 18-month contract for her pre-existing 3Mb Plusnet service. IMHO Plusnet should simply revert her to the pre-existing pay monthly contract and I will pursue this now (within the 14 day cooling off period).

My bigger question though is - can we simply order Fibre2 for a new line (pair) to the house and keep the BT voice service untouched ? What is the definition of a "line" these days without voice ? Given Plusnet line speed is simply determined at the exchange, it's frustrating that we have to go through this hassle simply to increase her circuit speed.

Any views on this approach (a new line) is much appreciated.  Is there a better way ?

[#2]

@phguk  Welcome to the Plusnet Community Fora.

To be brutally honest it might be better and just as cheap if she wants to keep her landline phone to move back to BT/EE and take a combined fiibre broadband and digital phone service from them. This is not available from Plusnet.

The downside is that she will lose all access to her Plusnet email service and emails saved on the Plusnet servers.

[#3]

@phguk 

You cannot change a copper based service nowadays - even a simple speed upgrade is verbotten. This is due to the PSTN switchoff by the end of 2025.

You're mother will have to go onto a VOIP service at some point to keep a landline but this has problems with regard to Care and Security alarms and power cuts.

Is your mother switching to FTTC or Full Fibre?

Brian

[#4]

I'll find out more later today but it's certainly not Full Fibre. The irony is Plusnet simply have offered her another 18-month contract at 3Mb (which could even be copper but I presume its FTTC).

As Baldrick1 observed, she's probably better off moving to a BT Fibre [1 or 2] plan with digital voice. 

[#5]

@phguk 

Continuing "as is" buys you time to think about what to do next. PN will upgrade mid-contract or arrange a transfer to BT / EE FOC at any point.

What does the Checker say for your mother's phone number. Full Fibre shows as WBC FTTP in the left hand column. FTTC is WBC VDSL and ADSL is ADSL.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Brian

[#6]

@phguk 

Reading between the lines makes me wonder whether your mother was on a legacy ADSL service only, which hasn’t been available for years. Can you confirm? This could totally confuse things as the only option now from Plusnet is broadband with no landline phone from any supplier, whilst if I understand correctly, she was paying for a landline phone with BT and broadband from Plusnet.

If so I can quire understand why there’s no returning to the previous arrangement, it is no longer an option.

[#7]

That link shows WBC FTTC unavailable. WBC VDSL available. 

[#8]

@phguk 

Did you mean WBC FTTP? And does it actually shown as unavailable or just not shown?

Brian

[#9]

Well Plusnet clearly have some form of broadband product available with 3Mbs down [without losing the voiceline] because that's what they've insisted she sign's up for. I'm just irritated they want her to commit to 18 months. 

[#10]

@phguk 

You can continue with the current service right up until the PSTN is withdrawn. You just can't change products.

Brian

[#11]

[#12]

That link shows WBC FTTC unavailable. WBC VDSL available. 

I think that's just Openreach's rather obtuse way of saying that VSDL based Broadband and phone (FTTC) isnt available due to WLR stop sell BUT that VDSL broadband on its own (SoGEA) is.

[#13]

@phguk 

Thanks for the information. Things are clearer now.

As stated, remaining "as is" buys time to consider options.

Alternatively your mother could move to FTTC but with the requirement to use VOIP for phone services. The easiest (but not the cheapest) way to do this is to go to BT for their combined service. Other ISP's like Zen also offer a combined service. This would be at the cost of PN email if used. Given her age you might be able to get a power back up unit out of them.

To stay with PN your mother would need to set up a VOIP account with someone like A&A and "port" her number asap after the transfer to VOIP. Probably cheaper but needs setting up.

https://www.aa.net.uk/voice-and-mobile/voip-information/

Are you authorised to speak to PN on your mother's behalf? If not, it's something you might like to consider.

Brian

[#14]

Hi @phguk , going back to your original post/question ordering an additional line for Fibre is what I did.

I'm a few years younger than your mother but had the same setup - a BT landline with ADSL broadband from PlusNet on top. And a phone number known to many as it's been constant for many decades!

My new line was installed (separate thread about it here somewhere) and soon afterwards I cancelled my original PlusNet broadband. Note that this also immediately killed my (never used) PlusNet email. The BT phone line and number continued.

NOW in my case, being pretty IT-literate, I had already decided to look at VOIP and transfer the BT number to a different service, thus saving most of the £20-odd per month charge for the BT line. But you don't have to do that.

Given your mothers age (and therefore possibly vulnerability) there may well also be a good case to allow (exceptions can be granted) her to have a fibre FTTC service added to the existing BT line despite the "stop sell" rules.

But first I guess you need to try and recover the situation that misleading information has put her (and you) in! 

[#15]

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@phguk wrote:

Well Plusnet clearly have some form of broadband product available with 3Mbs down [without losing the voiceline] because that's what they've insisted she sign's up for. I'm just irritated they want her to commit to 18 months. 

---

Well they do offer ADSL 2+ but note that BT have measured the download speed at 18.97Mbps, suggesting that she should be doing much better than 3Mbps unless this is a really old legacy ADSL connection.

You have not answered my previous question on whether she was on a legacy product. You will note that the new proposed 18 month contract triggers the cancellation of her BT phone line. The cost of the line will now be embedded in the Plusnet contract without any phone service contract. In this new world the phone service has to go digital and you can't have Plusnet Internet and BT Digital phone both operating on a single line to the property.